Songwriter and poet PJ McCall is remembered at a three day festival in Rathangan in County Wexford.
The Dublin songwriter and poet Patrick Joesph McCall (PJ McCall) is celebrated by the people of Rathangan, County Wexford with a three day éigse,
A gathering at which those in the know, pass on that knowledge.
Among the many songs and ballads written by PJ McCall are 'Boolavogue', 'Follow Me Up to Carlow', 'The Low Lands Low' and 'Kelly the Boy from Killane'. Many of his songs use traditional airs to which he matched words.
The programme for the éigse resembles a mini-fleadh, with concerts, dancing, ballads, inter-county footballs, athletics, pageants, skittles and lectures.
PJ McCall's mother and his wife were both from the Rathangan. In 1980 it was decided to commemorate his name with the Éigse PJ McCall. Dick Roche is a founder of the event and gives a synopsis of PJ McCall's significance,
He was not just a poet of local fame he was a national figure in fact.
PJ McCall died in 1919 aged 58 and is buried in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 25 August 1983. The reporter is Michael Ryan.
